Hard water has been a plague and a nuisance for a long time. Nitrates in the water have been a health problem, especially for infants. By removing these contaminants, soaps and detergents perform better, and much less use of these products are necessary for proper cleaning. Also, by eliminating the calcium in the water, plumbing pipes, water heaters, etc. have a much longer life. When removing these dangerous nitrates, through the ion exchange system, the water becomes safe for human and animal consumption.
Certain devices have been invented to remove the undesired minerals from the water. The most common type of “water-treatment” device is an ion-exchange system, which is readily rechargeable. These devices operate principally by causing untreated water to flow through a bed of treated material. During that flow, the undesired cations in the water are removed and replaced by less objectionable materials. When the bed of material becomes charged with the undesirable ions, it is regenerated by a solution—usually brine—which can be passed through the bed of mineral. We use a reverse flow of the brine through the bed of materials, although a direct flow may be—and commonly is—used in systems today. We also use air as a final rinse to better agitate and loosen the “clumps” of mineral, thereby permitting a much better regeneration of the mineral.
This reverse flow performs four functions: First, the mineral bed becomes recharged with sodium that reacts with the undesired cations by exchanging the ions; second, the bed is physically raised by the reverse flow through it; third, any coarse material filtered out of the water by the treatment bed may be flushed away and fourth, by drawing air and water into the mineral tank, as a final rinse, after it has been saturated by the brine, the mineral is completely loosened from the “clumps” as a series of minor explosions appear to happen within the mineral tank when air/water is drawn into the tank through the injector during the final rinsing of the tank mineral. This causes a much better regeneration and permits additional removal of contaminate than if the air is not used.
The systems that exclusively use a single tank and time/clock do not perform satisfactorily or efficiently in treating water for contaminates. As water use is not the same during a given time period, the mineral bed is either regenerated needlessly (i.e., too soon), causing waste, or the bed will become contaminated before the regeneration time is selected, thus permitting the untreated water to pass through the treatment system without being treated. Also, this system needs to be regenerated when water use is not expected, usually during the wee hours of the morning. When this type of system is regenerated, it automatically goes on “bypass” as it cannot treat the water and regenerated at the same time. If the time clock is not set to the correct time, regeneration can take place during periods of water use at any time of the day.
With our treatment device, we provide a system in which the time of regeneration is immaterial. This is possible because we use two tanks, one of which can be regenerated while the second tank is in operation. Thus, we do not have to be concerned about regeneration at any particular time. We measure the flow of water from the mineral tank through a photo-electric sensor to control the regeneration, based on the gallons of water used: The amount of water that can be passed through a given amount of mineral, based on the contaminate level is commonly known, and by selecting the contaminates of the water and the amount of mineral in the tank, we can select how much water can be safely passed through the mineral before regeneration of the mineral is necessary. This eliminates waste of water and salt for regeneration. It also eliminated the problem of allowing untreated water to flow through the system. By use of various strategically located pressure operated valves, we provide alternate routes of water flow through the tanks so that while one is being regenerated, the second tank is being used. Also, because we have a source of treated water, we can regenerate the spent mineral with contaminate free water, permitting additional gallons of water through the tank after it has been regenerated.
These valves and the circuits they control can best be understood by reference to the following description and figures as follows: